Expectations for the women’s AA final haven’t changed since before the meet, when a podium featuring two Americans and Ellie Black was the obvious assumption. Still the case—we just now know that the two Americans competing for those spots are Riley McCusker (or Brilly McCooster, obviously my favorite pronunciation ever to happen) and Kara Eaker.

But don’t count out Flavia Saraiva. She managed the fourth best score yesterday, which included a fall on beam, so a clean day from her today should also produce a very compelling total. An all-around medal going to anyone outside that collection of four, however, would qualify as a true upset.

The top four are joined in the primary rotation group by Martina Dominici and Thais Fidelis, while group NCAA4EVER begins on bars with Danusia Francis, Ariana Orrego, and Sandra Collantes all rotating together, along with Victoria Woo. Continue reading Pan American Games: Women’s All-Around →

Subdivision 1 (4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT)
Team Canada
(Ellie Black, Brooklyn Moors, Shallon Olsen, Victoria Woo, Isabela Onyshko)

Team Mexico
(Daniela Briceño, Paulina Campos, Anapaula Gutierrez, Jimena Gutierrez)

Team Argentina
(Martina Dominici, Luna Fernandez, Abigail Magistrati, Valeria Pereyra, Agustina Pisos)

Jamaica
(Danusia Francis, Toni-Ann Williams, Kiara Richmon)

Dominican Republic
(Yamilet Peña, Alondra Echavarria)

Cayman Islands
(Raegan Rutty)

Canada begins on beam, Mexico begins on bars, Argentina begins on floor, and the remaining athletes begin on vault.

Nicolle Castro has withdrawn, so everyone is doing all the pieces for Mexico. Toni-Ann Williams is slated to compete bars and beam (why Jamaica won’t have a team score). Continue reading Pan American Games – Women’s Team Live Blog →

American Classic! You know a competition is important and organized when the times and format change two days before the event. The original format of this competition saw the juniors compete early and the seniors compete later, but given the dearth of seniors registered for the event, the juniors have been divided among the two sessions.

In terms of those juniors, this competition is very much a “who’s the next thing” opportunity because the top juniors we have known either turned senior this year or are currently en route to Hungary for junior worlds. The obvious standouts or obvious potential winners aren’t here, so this meet will be about those “oh she has good dance elements, what’s her name…?” moments.

Of the competitors here, the one who recorded the best score at junior worlds trials was Ciena Alipio with 54.050—whom we also saw compete at Jesolo this year—followed by Sydney Morris with a 52.050, Mya Witte with a 51.900, and Ava Siegfeldt with a 51.700. With a 5.6 D on bars and a 6.2 D on beam, Alipio has the difficulty to pull away from most of the other gymnasts here if it’s a good day for her.

As for the seniors, Sunisa Lee is among the few big names that elected to attend, another opportunity to continue making a case for worlds, though it was disappointing to see that Jordan Chiles withdrew as I think we were all looking forward to seeing what her gymnastics looked like at this point. Most of the other senior competitors will be looking for their qualifying score to nationals of a 52.000 AA. Continue reading American Classic – Live Blog →

Great work with the name. It’s cool how everyone knows what this meet is called, and it’s name isn’t stupid. Super well done, once again, team.

Welcome to the winning part where someone is going to do the winning. Based on yesterday’s performances, you like Oklahoma for the win overall because of that 197.850 with some eh-ish-ness on beam, but no one was that…greatly great? So if someone turns out to be…great…

That’s where we are at this point. The last two seasons, the best team in the semifinal has not won the title.

Your rotation order is LSU on vault, Oklahoma on bars, UCLA on beam, Denver on floor. I’ve been saying recently that starting on bars is the new worst rotation order because of the SVs on vault, but that doesn’t really apply to Oklahoma because Oklahoma does have a full vault lineup of 10.0s.

I don’t think any of the teams hate this rotation order. Denver got the semi-dreaded starting on floor order, but Denver’s best scores can come on bars and beam anyway, so that works. Plus, Denver’s super happy to be here, so whatever order you like… Continue reading Four on the Flippin’ Four Floor Whatever – Live Blog →

I’m here for warmups, so I’ll update with notes and let you know what’s up if anything.

Before we begin, a few developments of the last day or so.

1) Emma McLean is out of championships with an injury to her arm (that definitely isn’t her ankle or anything—I don’t know why you would say that confidently to Team GymCastic on the way to championships—who would do that?)

2) Maggie Nichols is indeed going to compete the all-around here.

3) Sarah Finnegan won the AAI Award, which came as a surprise to…not many. There were some compelling contenders of course, but she’s the strongest AAer of the seniors this year.

Heads up that I’m going to have a horrendous view of vault, so if I’m like, “great stick!” and you’re like, “that wasn’t a stick you dumb whore”…that’s probably going to happen.

Norah Flatley is performing “Unwritten” right now in a split stretch on the vault runway, and it’s the most talent anyone has had when doing anything.

At the urging of the team, Bev just did a model runway walk down the bars mat. So, this isn’t elite, is what I’m saying.

Marz warming up vault in addition to the six who have been in the lineup.

Sarah Finnegan’s switch leap work shot a beam of light across the whole arena, so the usual.

Gracie Kramer sits a 1.5. Kyla’s looks good. Wright with her normal. Kramer goes again and hits her 1.5, large lunge to the side. Kyla stuck her second attempt at a 1.5. Wright followed her with a stick. Kramer hit her third as well.

Injury alert: Miss Val is limping and showing her foot to people. Possible redshirt year?

Nebraska with the backess leo to end all backless leos for warmup. That’s about what I have to report from the second rotation of warmups. Normal doing normal.

Priessman watch: she’s warming up vault as one of the 7 for LSU.

Also, I’m going to be a real bail-handstand-leg-separation Nazi today because I have THE view of that.

OK start lists out – Priessman in vault and bars. Michigan using Heiskell in place of McLean on vault and floor as expected.

I definitely intended to have more to say about warmups, but you know, people and talking. You guys got passed up for more important people. You may survive.

Overall thoughts have been that everyone looks fine and no one great in warmups, which is what you want. No one looked like they’re mentally falling apart, no one using it up. Continue reading National Semifinals – Live Blog →